Bar Square

I’ve never had the desire to stop in to this bar as it always looks quite empty when I’m walking past, but we were invited to a friends birthday party here and decided to go.
The reality of it all is that it really is a great place for large parties, which made the experience so much better than I thought it would be. There’s plenty of room inside the actual bar with ‘U’ shaped tables and lots of room in Merchant Square for dinner parties. Our party was quite large, so we were spread out between two «U» shaped tables inside the bar and a few tables outside the bar area with lots of people standing around. It’s big enough inside for people to mingle around and get drinks from the bar with ease.
The drinks aren’t too expensive, which is nice, so that’s a plus for returning in the future. The bar staff that I came in to contact with were quite nice and answered any drinks questions that I may have had.
I can see myself coming back here in the future with larger parties.

The place was busy, however there was plenty of team on, so much so they just congregated around the till area and spoke for a good duration of our time there
Prompt with menu and taking our order, however food took 40 mins to arrive, one meal was over cooked and bland, portion sizes on the other very small indeed
This is one of these «trying to be trendy» places that brings your food out in pretentious holders, really its just to take away visually that the fries in the little plant bucket are enough for a child’s menu
The team where friendly enough however didn’t once come over to ask how the meal was, I think this is a necessity for places, it allows for extra drinks to be bought, napkins to be asked for or even condiments to enhance the meal once tasted
Really I won’t go back nothing gave me a positive lasting impression

I find this one of the better value places to eat in Merchant Square. I love sitting in the courtyard area as I think it’s a lot nicer than inside in the bar itself (not that there’s anything wrong with the bar, I just like the fairy lights etc of the Merchant Square courtyard.)
The menu has a good range of options at a reasonable price and portions are fairly generous. I particularly like the Cajun chicken which comes with delicious sticky rice covered in a lovely creamy sauce. The fajitas are also good. Would also recommend the waffles for dessert, although I’ve not usually got enough room for dessert to be honest.

Bring a full wallet, the drinks are on the expensive side, but at leasst the booths are comfy. They pour a decent pint of european beer here but I can’t comment on the food as we didn’t eat. What I saw being served looked like fairly bog standard pub grub and probably not the kind of thing I’d usually go for given the fabulous alternatives in Glasgow.
Bar Square opens out onto Merchant Square’s covered interior where the majority of diners were sitting on a very busy saturday afternoon. Its clearly a great spot for people watching! Fortunately for us there was some free seating in the main bar where I could quite easily have whiled away a whole afternoon were it not for the fact that we had other plans. It was the only pub in the vicinity with free seats which is the reason we ended up there, but it was perfectly fit for our purpose.

Very disappointing: my steak breakfast, ordered as medium rare steak with eggs easy over and no beans arrived with beans, well done steak and eggs with bases resembling plastic; we eventually had to sort the beans onto the correct plate ourselves, could do better.

I always really like the Merchant City area and looking for a bite to eat decided to give Bar Square a chance.
We sat outside overlooking the court yard and it was lovely and warm. It wasn’t particularly busy which I think is normal for a lot of places mid-​week, but there was something a bit unatmospheric about it all.
The waitress was friendly and the menu had a mix of burgers, pasta dishes and fajitas. I opted for a veggie burger and salad and my mum went for a chicken burger with fries.
It arrived quick enough but mine was your usual giant white tasteless bap with frozen out the freezer veggie burger (in fact I’ve had taster from Tesco or Yates!)
Likewise my mums was along a similar vain with forgettable chips probably straight out the freezer.
We decided to try redeem the main course with some chocolate cake but the waitress returned to say she had just sold the last slice! Come on — on a Wednesday night! Anyway this was probably a good shout as I imagine it would have been pretty disappointing and it was probably better to cut our loses.
I should say that the service was good and there was nothing particularly wrong with what we had, but with so many other places to try its certainly somewhere I won’t be rushing back to.

So seems like there are a few bad reviews for this place. Well I had no big complaints when I was in.
The look of the place is forgettable, although granted my memory isn’t the best I still usually remember my surroundings, at least until I’ve had a few. The service overall was very good, friendly and attentive. It was pretty quiet when we were in so I can’t comment on the service on a busy day. Me and my friend both ordered jalapeño poppers which came with sweet chilli sauce and were pretty tasty. I had chilli nachos and my friend had steak and chips. He said his steak was a little tough but ate it all anyway. I put this down to a poor cut of meat. Chilli was good but there were too many nachos and not enough chilli for my liking but still pretty good overall. They had a lunch deal which was 2 course for £7.95 it worked out that we both got a free starter. It seemed a decent price for lunch.
I would go here again but I won’t be rushing back. I’ve certainly been to much worse places.

Bank holiday weekend, perfect weather, feeling chilled.
Chose Barsquare for 2 course lunch. Finishing off the breaded mushrooms I notice some movement in the salad — A SLUG!
The atmosphere totally reversed instantaneously. We were so shocked we just left there and then. We are usually not shy in complaining if something is poor quality, cold etc but this was unprecedented. So disappointed!!!

Des tarifs vraiment attractif, avec entrée + plat pour 6.95 £ servi jusqu’à 4PM, tout ça dans un cadre super sympa. Cette grand hall à l’ancienne ou se retrouvent plusieurs bars/​pub…
Bonne surprise!

Good friendly staff and service. Breakfast available from 9am everyday! Excellent value for a good first meal of the day.

Expensive, but a good all round atmosphere I thought.
My friends and I sat at the candleriggs entrance, and even though there was music playing, we could still chat away and solve the problems of the world. My friend commented on how good the gin and tonics where.
I drank pints of cider all night so cant really comment on that, the others seemed happy with their Peroni beer, and the others where on Carling, which is crap, no matter how good or bad the pub!
It was’nt too crowded which suited me, and got served no problem every time, no hanging about trying to get bar staff attention.
All round pub, not too poncy for the merchant city either.

I have to add my two cents to this place, which has received the most unanimously poor restaurant rating on Unilocal in Glasgow perhaps?
I did not order food when I was in here, so first off, I can’t really say much as far as the grub goes.
While I wasn’t bowled over by the service or even the décor, it was a nice enough place upon entering. I didn’t really enjoy myself though, with an awkward vibe in the place which I might have made up after reading some reviews on Unilocal.
Nothing much to sell this place, given the many other places kicking around down here which give you value for money.
I had a casual glance on the website which looks like it has been designed by a school kid which never fills my heart with confidence.
One to avoid I believe.

Truly Terrible Customer Service — Avoid!!!
My friend and I went here for breakfast at 10.30 am on Saturday 30 May 2009. The place was empty. They have some seats out in the courtyard in Merchant Square, but we asked to sit inside. The courtyard isn’t the best place to sit. The barman refused point blank to serve us because he was the only one on duty so didn’t want to serve us unless we sat in the courtyard (dunno why, as our we weren’t exactly sitting far away from the bar) — obviously they don’t think the customer is always right, and I won’t be back — and will happily spread the word about themI did try to e-​mail them but their web address is no longer live. Sums them up. Pathetic service. Avoid this place. (By the way, I’ve only given this 1 out of 5 because you can’t award zero)

Nice selection of drinks and cocktails, good atmosphere on a friday night, if you sit outside (in the covered square) its pretty quiet, but if you go inside the music is pretty loud so you can choose what you prefer.
Drinks are pretty expensive, expect to pay around £8−10 for 2 drinks, or £15 for 2 cocktails.
The only complaint I would have is the bouncer who thinks he is a Drill Sargent when it comes drinking up time. Last orders, then less than 5 minutes later a guy who you feel the need to salute shouting in your face DRINK UP, AND MOVE OUTSIDE PEOPLE in an aggressive tone isn’t the best way to finish the night though. If it happens to you, stomp your foot and put your hand to your head in a salute see if we can get it to catch on :)